A Transient Smile
by CorpseonFire
Summary: Duo/Wufei.
1. Default Chapter

A Transient Smile  
  
By: Madoka! Pairings: WufeiXDuo Warnings: Sexual Content, yaoi, (slash for those slow people,) based on a song, "WonderBoy" by Tenacious D, (very, very loosely based,) ummmmmmm boredom ficcie. Madoka wanted to write a porn and rate it "G" and post it on Fanfiction.net and wreak some havoc, but then She didn't, cause that's not nice. And Madoka has been trying really REALLY hard to be nice recently. (It's not working.) HEY, A FOX JUST RAN THROUGH MADOKA'S YARD!!!!!!! Ahem. Dedicaition: Erm......for......god....for Dan. There we go. This is for Madoka's buddy Dan. :D Whoa, Madoka don;t usually do those annoying smilie bitch things. Oh well. Author's Notes: Erm.....thanks to those who commented on Gokou's Cult Adventure. Specail thanks to those who commented nicely. Madoka was really, REALLY high off antidepressants when She wrote that, cause Her mediciation fucks Her up, but...oh well! Being molested would fuck you up, too! Someimtes, Madoka eats corn. Erm....this ficcie dosn't really take place during any real event in the series, except maybe that episode, where Duo was captured.....you know? And the OZies beat him up? And then Heero saved him? Okay? Recall all of that, UNTIL the point that Heero came. Okay? (wichever one it was,) Okay, here you go. Read and enjoy!  
It had been so long now, that all of it had mixed together- being caught, being brought here, the dreary, strange, half-awake images had run together into a blur, and it was impossible to hang onto any of it now but the pain.  
  
The pain stayed with him, sleeping or awake, living or dead, wherever he was. He lay on his side, his teeth gritted always, hanging on to his awareness by a thread. Driven by nothing but basic instincts, living off nothing but sheer stubborness to survive. He was terrified to close his eyes, even for a second, for the fear that he wouldn't wake up. Even though by now it would be welcome, be a release, even though it would mean an end to the pain and the fear, something kept Duo pinned there, kept him wirthing on the rusting blade. He knew now what a welcome tradgedy death would be, prayed for it, even now, but he was terrified to close his eyes and let it come.  
  
And so passed Duo into his fourty-fifth hour of death. Quietly. Without the strength to scream and curse his captors with his shallow ragged breaths. Duo lay quietly on the floor of his cell, bound like a sacrifice to the narrow cot. The sores and cuts and bruises festered, as they had been doing all along. If he'd had the strength to cry, he would have, would have screamed for help. Wold have told them everything he knew, just so the pain would end. Believe me, nothing brings out the zest for life in someone like the thoughts of their impending doom.  
  
But who finally came into the cell to end it was not an OZ soldier at all. Duo knew that much. Their footsteps were light and quick, hurried and secretive. Duo knew who it was in the back of his mind and moved his head sluggishly as the cell door swung open, gasping out loud against the sudden outburst of pain. He almost didn't care anymore, for there in exhausted, panting glory, sliding his sword back into it's sheath, stood Wufei. Duo tried to smile, a smile he knew ended up in a smirk with unmasked pain, and shut his eyes again. Wufei stood just inside the cell, gaping at him.  
  
"Shit." He said at last.  
  
Duo coughed, and rasped, "Yeah. Could you get me out of here?" He heard more footsteps as Wufei hurried to obey, and sighed as he felt his hads come free from the metal that affixed the cot to the wall. He groaned and moved his hands into his lap, enjoying the spears of pain that jabbed at the inside of his arm. He glanced up again, into Wufei's eyes as the other pilot peered at him inquiringly.  
  
"You can't walk, can you?"  
  
"I doubt it."  
  
"Can you hang on to me?"  
  
"Probably." Duo reached up, like a baby, and Wufei scooped him into his arms. Feeling safe at last, Duo leaned his head against Wufei's collarbone, sharp and prominent through his shirt. There was a moment of them standing still that wasy, a moment Duo treasured because he hadn't felt safe this way since he was very small, while Wufei readjusted his weight in his arms.  
  
The way back was empty and quiet, because Wufei had eliminated everyone in a clear path from the parking garage to the cell, and no one had come to invesitgate yet. Duo never knew any of it. He was leaning against Wufei, all of him, his hands and feet limp, almost relishing the dull ache all over his body. No one had told him everything would be okay, and Wufei wasn't the type to make hasty promises. But Duo wasn't concious enough to care by now.  
  
At long last, Duo felt safe enough to close his eyes.  
  
********  
  
"Where are we going anyway?"  
  
Wufei jumped, and glanced quickly down, into his lap. Duo was sprawled across the seat, his violet eyes half lidded, gazing up at him with a bemused expression of weary trust. The small truck turned quickly on the dirt road, leaving a tail of airborne dust, as Wufei steered onto a small side road, nearly hidden in the tall grass. For hours he had been driving in the near silence of Duo's shallow breathing, wondering if he would arrive at his destinaition with a dead pilot or a live one. Duo didn't have the strength to say anything more, just peered up at Wufei with glazed eyes, like he was seeking secret things under Wufei's skin, traveling along with the blood and DNA.  
  
"Someplace safe." Wufei said at last. "You can sleep now, Duo, it's gonna be okay."  
  
"Always had this fear of going to sleep, ya know?" Duo coughed, trying to silence it, and Wufei winced as he saw a spattering of blood appear on Duo's chin. "Always wondered if I would wake up in the morning." he wriggled his hands and feet, moving the tips of his fingers feebly. "It dosn't look like it this time, does it?"  
  
"You'll be okay. There's people that can help you here."  
  
Duo smiled warily, and shut his eyes again. "I've survived worse."  
  
The truck screeched to a stop, and Wufei frowned down at the unoncious pilot, unsure of how to move him. At last, he leaned down and scooped the pilot up into his arms, awkwardly, so that Duo hung in his arms like a strange hunting quarry. He held him uncertainly, standing beside the dented pickup, as a shout went up and most of the inhabitants of the small village raced torwards him. Mostly children, it seemed, they gathered around the pickup, Wufei, and the spectacle of the long-limbed, limp creature Wufei was cradling in his arms.  
  
"Bring her in here!" An old woman, more frail then the children, shouted. She fought her way through the crowd and gestured to Wufei for him to follow her. Wufei didn't bother to correct her about Duo's gender. It hardly seemed the time. He fought his way through the forest of dark heads and pale shoulders, following the old woman that could have been his grandmother, if it had been time for comparison. Ignoring the crowds that had gathered around the door, jabbering in manderin, the old woman poured water down Duo's throat, and covered the younger pilot with a thick blanket while Wufei stood, a senseless shadow, just inside the door. Blood was washed away, wounds sewn shut, the pilot murmered sleepily in english all silenced by a motherly hum. The small body leaning over the bed blocked Duo from his vision, but he could hear his shirt sliding off and a moment later it slid to the floor. Wufei saw  
  
"He should be more comfortable now." The old woman murmered, leaning over the unoncious form. "You'll have to stay in Lao La, Wufei, until he gets strong enough for you to move him."  
  
"Of course." Wufei said uncomfortably. "Nai Nai," He added, as she turned to leave. "How long?"  
  
"Worry about that once you know he will surivive." The old mother said in a lilting voice as she slipped past him and out the door. "His injuries are very serious. This one would not be suprised if he died sometime during the night."  
  
"Thanks." Wufei murmered, after she had gone, after her limping shape out in the sun. He turned his focus on Duo then, or tried to. It was still so quiet, far removed from the hubub outside of the crash of the ocean and the slap of bare feet on dirt. A lone, loose chicken wandered in the front and pecked softly at the floor. Wufei didn't notice any of it. His ears were filled with the sound of other people's breathing. He was holding a bit of silk ribbon from the end of Duo's braid, because he was scared to touch him and wake him up. He sat in the corner away from the stray hen and waited, running his fingers over the ribbon where it was frayed on the ends. How fine the silk. How fine and loose and free. 


	2. THE END

A Transient Smile - Chapter two  
  
By: Madoka. Still. It hasn't changed! NO ONE WILL TAKE ME ALIVE!  
  
Pairings: Still Wufei and Duo.  
  
Warnings: Violence, sexual content, all that other stuff. Fun! SAP 'N FLUFF!  
  
Dedicaition: Erm.....For Kate, the love of my life. Or she was. Or...I don't know. :)  
  
A/N: So.....yestarday, someone robbed the bank near our school and everyone got all panicky and put the school in a total lockdown without telling anyone why. So naturally we thought it was more terrorists and everyone started freaking out, and I held my breath against poisonous gases until I passed out. I was suprised to wake up. Now I'm wondering why all the bad stuff kind of gets centered around the Bowie area. Like, the sniper, and bank robberies, and 9/11 was in DC wich is like, 20 miles away! It's not fair! and the PG county police shooting people all the time. Life sucks for us, except it dosnt. I read yestarday that the war has been over for like, a week, and no one told me! I had NO fucking idea! And I was like, "What the fuck is this? Why is there no one celebrating?! No one is like, "YAY! PARADE! CELEBRAITIONS!" Everyone was all like, "Duh the war is over, dumbass." WHY dosn't anyone care anymore?  
  
:: That indicates someone thinking, okay? this thing, here- :: then there'll be another one here. ::  
  
Madoka  
CHAPTER TWO  
  
"  
Fish straight in from the sea flopped and poured their slick silver bodies over and over themselves as they were released from their nets. Wufei and Duo waded among the fresh kills with sharpened knives in their fists, gutting the slamon as quickly as they could. Duo still had bandages wrapped around his stomach, and he moved slowly, like an old man, bent down over piles of dead and dying fish. He cursed as his braid dropped into the muck, and brushed it away impaitiently, white and foreign and strange, pale as the fish's bellies. He half glanced up as he caught Wufei looking at him, and smiled almost shyly, his hands full of fish guts and his eyes glinting like a manic god of the sea standing knee-deep in his bounty. Screaming seagulls wheeled overhead, landing in the middle of the carnage, their mouths full of red warm bleeding blessings. It seemed only a few hours before Duo had mastered the art of gutting the fish so that the slick red entrails flew out in midair torwards the birds and away from his face. Wufei still fumbled with the slippery fish and the knife- it wasn't the first time he opened a gash on his palm as a seemingly dead fish wriggled to life in his hands. The shouts of more people, more people then Wufei had ever known in his life, all around him, shouting in his language, calling to him and to each other, comforted him. He hadn't expected to feel this way when he came. More alienaition from the rest of the world was all he had expected and he had gotten this instead. It was someting that folded itself around him, comforted and soothed him without really suprising him at all. There were people that looked like him out in the world, that spoke his language and regarded him as one of them with no questions asked. It was enough to make him give up Nataku, a peaceful life here. Marry another chinese girl, have little fat babies and live here, peaceful, without ever picking up a gun again. But that could mean letting Duo go, letting the Duo he had already begun to appriciate as a friend leave forever and not look back. Duo was the happy one, the one that shouted back at the seagulls and smiled and laughed, even as he was, up to his knees in dead fish. and covered in gore, exaulting in the smell of the ocean and the screaming of the wheeling gulls. Even with a dull red-brown bloodstain on his bandages and nightmares at night, he was the happy one that laughed softly at night to his own stories, because he was afraid to fall asleep.  
  
****  
  
Sleep had eluded Wufei that night too. He lay on his back, aware that Duo was awake too, neither of them talking. They were tired, and it had been a long day, but Wufei was still basking in the glow of the people around him and Duo was pining for someplace diffrent, and they had both seen the helicopters that had circled low over Lao La three or four times, earlier in the night. Neither of them could hear it now, but both knew it wasn't far off.  
  
"It was OZ, wasn't it?" Duo asked softly.  
  
"Probably." Wufei agreed.  
  
"Do you think maybe we should leave, before we get Nai Nai and everyone else in trouble?"  
  
"Where would we go, Maxwell? You're not strong enough to take Deathscythe far enough away from here for it to make a diffrence anyway."  
  
"I could try." Duo offered in a small voice, a child's voice.  
  
Wufei stiffened. "I don't want to risk it."  
  
"I do."  
  
"I don't want you to get hurt, Duo." As soon as the words were out, Wufei wished he could call them back, but there was no way. He shut his eyes as he heard a rustle of blankets and felt Duo's eyes on him.  
  
"Did you mean that?"  
  
Wufei shrugged. "I don't know."  
  
Duo sat up and put his feet on the floor. Wufei frowned as he crossed the floor in the darkness and sat next to him, on the edge of the bed, with the tail of his long braid dropping onto the bedspread. "What are you doing, Maxwell?"  
  
"I'm not sure." Duo admitted. "This is kind of uncomfortable, isn't it?"  
  
"All I said was that I didn't want you hurt, nothing more."  
  
"You said my name." Duo pointed out. "And You can't deny caring about me, no matter how hard you try, cause now you've already admitted to not wanting me to get hurt."  
  
Wufei stayed stiff and unmoving under the covers. He couldn't admit that Duo's company was pleasing, and that his heart was racing now, and a giddy wave of anticipaition had washed over him. It seemed so painfully obvious now, now that someone else was admitting to it too, that he loved Duo, that he had loved him all along.  
  
"All my life, I've tried not to do this, Maxwell."  
  
"Come on, Wufei." Duo urged, leaning closer, until their foreheads were touching and he was breathing on Wufei's cheek. "You know we turn out okay."  
  
Almost without meaning to, Wufei's arm curled up, around Duo's waist, his fingers stroking Duo's flank. "We do, don't we?" He asked in a whisper, and there was only the answer of Duo's fingers on his cheek, and then he was kissing him in the darkness, a kiss that was only a kiss but could deepen into so much more.  
  
And far up above in the sky, OZ circled above them all.  
  
******  
  
Wufei had a feeling.  
  
He couldn't explain what it was, or why he felt that way all of a sudden, but he looked up and around anyway. Next to him, Duo caught his eyes and followed suit, staring up at the blue sky. Nothing. There was nothing anywhere near them that would have endangered them but his instincts flared up all of a sudden, white-hot bringing one word to mind- DANGER!!!! He didn't move but glanced over at Duo. The younger pilot was looking torwards the thick cropping-up of trees that led up the mountain, up and up a small path into a clearing where two gundams under a camaflouge net lay sleeping in the silence.  
  
The distinctive sound of helicopter blades faded in from far away, coming from the oppisite direction of the mountains, over the ocean. Next to Wufei, a girl their age looked up, her eyes widening at the sound. Without a word to either of them, she leapt to her feet and ran torwards the docks, her bare feet slapping on the dirt road, her long black hair swinging down to her waist.  
  
"I told you." Duo told him in a trembling voice, standing up. "I told you we should have gotten out of here."  
  
"Duo, shut up." Wufei snapped. This wasn't the time for finger pointing, far from it. He bit his lip, watching the sudden stampede of people moving about frantically, the gundam pilots forgetten in the face of much greater danger. How could he get all of them out of the village and safe? Would they all cooperate to run for the woods? Could he hold off a helicopter full of OZ ies with just his sword and Duo gravely weakened as he was?  
  
"Master Chang!" Wufei was spun around by one of the men from the docks, who held a katana in one hand. "You have to hurry! Go to your Gundams, and we'll hold them off here as long as we can."  
  
Wufei gaped. "But..." He began in a stuttering voice.  
  
"Go! Get out of here! Gun Dan! Gun Dan!" The other man shouted, giving him a shove in the direction of the woods. Wufei turned and grabbed Duo, before he could protest, and ran for the woods. The helicopters were getting closer, accompanied by planes, now. He could hear them, bearing down on them. He wasn't sure how many miles it had been down to Lao La the last time he had seen Nataku. A mile? Two? Could Duo run that far? He was already gasping, hugging his stomach as if trying to keep his entrails in. Wufei stopped and turned around.  
  
"Duo, come here."  
  
"What the hell do you think I'm trying to do?!" Duo panted as he reached Wufei's side. "Dude, I got a pistol. You could go get Nataku and Deathscythe for me, and come back an' we can swoop in just in time to save everybody...."  
  
Wufei grabbed Duo and scooped him up before he could stop himself. "We don't have any time for negotiaitions, Duo. Hang on." Duo clung to his back and Wufei was off again, running uphill, dodging stumps and rocks, running past trees that whipped out their braches to stop them in their tracks. It was a long way. They could hear gunshots, but no screams. There seemed to be no one coming up after them. Wufei frowned as he ran, Duo bouncing off his back uncomfortably. How much longer? Half a mile? More? He couldn;t stand it. His lungs were going to burst. Three more steps, two more, one...  
  
They burst into the clearing and Wufei crumpled, gasping, panting, clutching his stomach. Duo hurried to pull the nets away from the Gundams and wrench Wufei to his feet. Standing there, he gave him a hurried kiss, only the second kiss they'd ever had, and looked at him uncertainly. Wufei pecked him back on the cheek and ran to Nataku, wrenching the net off, and then sliding into the cockpit, as warm and comforting as Duo had been, spun Nataku around, and made for Lao La as fast as the Gundam could go.  
  
****  
  
There is a strange time, right after something terrible happens, when you know it's true but you haven't told anyone yet. Of everything, that was what Wufei would remember the best. The OZies were already gone, having not found what they were looking for and not seeing the point of dallying around to see if they would show up. There was no one left alive to rescue. Wufei hovered, numb and horrified, knowing why it was so quiet but not wanting to land and see if there was anything left. It seemed that when Nataku landed, she did so of her own accord, and that Wufei had nothing to do with it. Hesitantly, he stepped out into the world.  
  
The stench of blood and fires met his nostrils. He murmered a curse and covered his nose and mouth with the collar of his shirt. Squinting against the sun, wich seemed to mock him, shining so brightly on such a day, he made his way hesitantly forward. He could tell how far the OZies had made it into the village- where they had not gone, there was nothing changed, only barren and empty. A jar of preserved duck eggs sat in someone's windowsill. A mottled grey hen wandered disconsolsntly about her yard. There were no bodies, not yet, no bootprints, no nothing. The dust in the road was scuffled but otherwise everything was at peace. It wasn't until he got closer to the docks that he found a body, just one, lying there on her own, her sword lying a few feet away. Shot. Wufei had seen dead bodies before but when he turned the next corner he retched and then vomited.  
  
The dead were piled up like the fish they harvested from the sea, their bodies mangled and shot, their faces blown away, piled on top of one another until they looked like nothing more then a garbage heap, rotting in the sun. It had to be the whole village, piled up on top of each other, bleeding, the black drone of flies over their bodies a hellish buzzing. Wufei vomited, then vomited again. He backed up, slowly, faster and faster, until he could retreat down a dark alleyway free of bodies and to the beach. He staggered down to the place where the waves swept over the sand and left it saturated and muddy and fell to his knees. The seagulls wheeled over him, but he didn't look up at them because he couldn't bear to see them.  
  
::This is.....not me. This is not me.:: It got easier even to think it as long as he believed in it. ::All those people....all dead....at once... and I can't go back now. They'll say just to get over it. It's a war. People die in wars, this is just one more dream to get over. Well, this time, I'll make sure that I never wake up! Never!::  
  
There was a pistol in his pocket. Wufei fumbled with it and clicked the safety off.  
  
::No more wishing for a real life! No more killing innocent people! No more me! I'm blowing THROUGH that lid!::  
  
"Over the stars." Wufei whispered. His finger tightened on the trigger, but someone slapped the gun away before he could actually fire, and pulled him back, throwing the gun as high as they could. With a roar, Wufei struggled after it as it dropped with a splash in the sea and gave up, flopping limply back into Duo's lap as the American pulled him close.  
  
"I know it hurts, Wufei." Duo whispered, stroking Wufei's black hair off his forehead with a comforting hand. "I know it sucks. But killing yourself isn't the answer."  
  
"It should have been me."  
  
"It should have been both of us." Duo agreed in a tight voice that was close to tears. "But it wasn't, Wufers. We can't question the gifts other people give us. It's just-" He gulped and shook his head.  
  
"I loved them. All of them. Somehow...."  
  
"And they loved you. They proved that over and over. They died so you would live, and this is how you're going to repay them?" Duo asked softly. "I know how you feel. I know I''ve thought about it dozens of times. But we can't do it this way, Wufers. They believed in you, just like Sister Helen and Father Maxwell believed in me." Duo's voice betrayed a weary, jagged edge. "And they died- knowing they would die, so that we might live and change things somehow. Don't fuck it up by giving up now. They need you. I need you. Wufei, I know you're desprate and mad but I need you with me. You can't die now. I..I love you, dude. And I've been thinking about it for months and months, just working up to be able to tell you. Don't go now. I need to know you love me too."  
  
Wufei stayed very, very still, breathing under the comforting weight of Duo's arm across his chest. He was unsure of how to handle the sudden revaliation of Duo's proclamaition of love. The words brought a wave of the same tingly, tight chested feeling that swamped him all over again and left him hollow and wanting to cry all over again.  
  
"Duo...." He wasnted to finish the thought but he couldn't. He didn't know what he felt. He half turned and Duo looked up at him with red-rimmed eyes that were raw and damp from crying. "God..." What a thing to stick him with now. "I just wish, that I had never come here. That's all I can feel right now."  
  
Duo half-smiled, leaned forward, and kissed Wufei again. Kiss # 3. Wufei felt himself melting to the other pilot's touch, the little things about him, the way he held Wufei to him in a half-hug that Wufei was becoming very used to now. He almost felt a tinny bit better. Not better enough to go back and face the holocaust in Lao La but the gun in the ocean didn't seem so huge a loss. Life in the world again was looking a little bit better.  
  
"Duo." His tongue was thick in his mouth, and it would have been hard for anyone to talk after a kiss like that. Duo half smiled again, the same sad smile that betrayed everything about Duo, not just the happy, stupid American he let everyone else see, and stood. Wufei scrambled to his feet beside him, and gulped down another wave of hysteria at the thought of going back to bury the dead. Duo picked up his hand and held it between his own, stroking his knuckles softly with his thumb. "You really want me to say it, don't you?"  
  
"I was kinda hoping for it." Duo said shyly.  
  
Wufei leaned forward until their foreheads were touching. "I love you, Maxwell." Duo smiled the same sad smile and leaned in for kiss # 4. Wufei was happy to oblige.  
  
"I can't go back, not yet." He told him when they had broken apart. "Soon, but not right away."  
  
"We have time." Duo agreed. "Come on. We can walk awhile and get it out of our systems." Wufei nodded assent and Duo turned and wandered down the beach, in no paticular hurry, and Wufei turned once to look back at the burned out shell of what had been Lao La. Sand flung itself into the air as he turned and ran after Duo. The younger pilot turned and caught Wufei in his arms, burying his face in the other boy's neck, eyes closed, deeply content despite everything that had happened that day. Nothing would ever erase his pain completely, but he could feel a tiny bit better. And in time, so would Wufei. They had been through so much already, and the worst was yet to come, but at least he had someone now, he didn't have to feel so alone anymore. It was strange, but so much had changed since he had come to Lao La only a week before. The tangles and thorns of life are unmappable, almost as the complexities of the human heart.  
  
End  
  
Well, um....That's it. The incredible adventure that is my horrendous writing skills. I'm sorry the ending was kind of screwed. I worked forever on it. Thanks to those who reviewed nicely. You've made me do one of those smile-y things.  
  
-Madoka 


End file.
